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Ethnic Studies

Mission

Ethnic Studies is the interdisciplinary social and historical study of how different populations have experienced, survived, and critically engaged the United States nation-building project.  We analyze the social dynamics of race, racism, and various forms of institutionalized violence, including land conquest, racist state violence, Spanish and Euroamerican colonialisms, U.S. imperialism, systemic sexual violence, racial genocide, chattel slavery, gendered militarization, legalized discrimination (apartheid and segregation), white supremacy, and the internalized logics of gender/racial domination and assimilation. We are especially engaged with the creative historical work of social movements, cultural and artistic productions, legal and public policy activisms, indigenous and liberationist epistemologies, community and identity formation, and radical social and political thought. We examine how these different kinds of resistance, persistence, liberation struggle, and radical knowledge production both confront and transform oppressive conditions and create new possibilities for social change.

Major Requirements

The Ethnic Studies Department offers a B.A. degree in Ethnic Studies, African American Studies, Asian American Studies, Chicana/o Studies, or Native American Studies.

The major requirements for the B.A. degree in Ethnic Studies are as follows:

Core courses required of all majors.

1. Lower-division requirements (12 units)
   1. ETST 001: Introduction to the Study of Race and Ethnicity
      
      
   2. Two courses chosen from:
      
      ETST 002: Introduction to Chicano Studies
      ETST 003: Introduction to African American Studies
      ETST 005: Introduction to Asian American Studies
      ETST 007: Introduction to Native American Studies
      
      
2. Upper-division requirements (48 units)
   1. ETST 101A: Historical Development of Race, Racism and White Supremacy and ETST 101B: Theories of Race and Resistance
      
      
   2. ETST 191R: Seminar in Ethnic Studies
      
      
   3. Four courses chosen from any of the following areas of emphasis:
      
      
      1. African American Studies
      2. Asian American Studies
      3. Chicana/o Studies
      4. Native American Studies
         
         
   4. Three courses chosen from Ethnic Studies that are comparative in nature
      
      
   5. One additional elective course in Ethnic Studies

Note: No internship courses may be counted toward the upper-division electives in Ethnic Studies.

Minor Requirements

1. Lower-division requirement (4 units):
   1. Ethnic studies 001: Introduction to the Study of Race and Ethnicity
      
      
2. Upper-division requirements (20 units):
   1. Ethnic Studies 100: Race and Ethnicity in a Comparative Perspective
      Ethnic Studies 131: Race, Class, and Gender
   2. Twelve (12) additional upper-division units in Ethnic Studies courses that are either comparative in nature of focus on African Americans, Asian Americans, Chicanos, or Native Americans.

(Ethnic Studies Advisor must approve courses.)

Note: See Minors under College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences in the Undergraduate Studies section of the 2006-2007 Catalog for additional information on minors.